Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) eBook

“Where the bee sucks, there suck
I;
In a cowslip’s bell I lie:
There I crouch when owls do cry.
On the bat’s back I do fly
After summer Merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.”

Prospero then buried deep in the earth his magical
books and wand, for he was resolved never more to
make use of the magic art. And having thus overcome
his enemies, and being reconciled to his brother and
the king of Naples, nothing now remained to complete
his happiness, but to revisit his native land, to
take possession of his dukedom, and to witness the
happy nuptials of his daughter and Prince Ferdinand,
which the king said should be instantly celebrated
with great splendor on their return to Naples.
At which place, under the safe convoy of the spirit
Ariel, they, after a pleasant voyage, soon arrived.

II

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

There was a law in the city of Athens which gave to
its citizens the power of compelling their daughters
to marry whomsoever they pleased; for upon a daughter’s
refusing to marry the man her father had chosen to
be her husband, the father was empowered by this law
to cause her to be put to death; but as fathers do
not often desire the death of their own daughters,
even though they do happen to prove a little refractory,
this law was seldom or never put in execution, though
perhaps the young ladies of that city were not unfrequently
threatened by their parents with the terrors of it.

There was one instance, however, of an old man, whose
name was Egeus, who actually did come before Theseus
(at that time the reigning duke of Athens), to complain
that his daughter Hermia, whom he had commanded to
marry Demetrius, a young man of a noble Athenian family,
refused to obey him, because she loved another young
Athenian, named Lysander. Egeus demanded justice
of Theseus, and desired that this cruel law might
be put in force against his daughter.

Hermia pleaded in excuse for her disobedience, that
Demetrius had formerly professed love for her dear
friend Helena, and that Helena loved Demetrius to
distraction; but this honorable reason, which Hermia
gave for not obeying her father’s command, moved
not the stern Egeus.

Theseus, though a great and merciful prince, had no
power to alter the laws of his country; therefore
he could only give Hermia four days to consider of
it: and at the end of that time, if she still
refused to marry Demetrius, she was to be put to death.

When Hermia was dismissed from the presence of the
duke, she went to her lover Lysander, and told him
the peril she was in, and that she must either give
him up and marry Demetrius, or lose her life in four
days.